Go Back  DVD Talk Forum > Entertainment Discussions > Movie Talk
Reload this Page >

Do you ever feel like "I'm not buying it" in a movie?

Movie Talk A Discussion area for everything movie related including films In The Theaters

Do you ever feel like "I'm not buying it" in a movie?

Old 02-05-04, 10:56 PM
  #1  
Banned
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Right Behind You
Posts: 4,986
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Do you ever feel like "I'm not buying it" in a movie?

Now, I'm not talking about technical things in movies like blowing up an asteroid with a nuke. I'm talking about dramatic films. You go see a movie that's supposed to be taken pretty seriously and the movie just tries too hard to be great when it isn't. This really doesn't happen too much but 2 movies come to mind We Were Soldiers and Cold Mountain. We Were Soldiers because the movie had to throw in ridiculous unnecessary comments about racism and the fact that Chris Klein sucks. Cold Mountain because there pretty much was no story and none of the characters knew what they wanted and because the villain pretty much had zero development.
Old 02-05-04, 11:03 PM
  #2  
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Phoenix
Posts: 8,085
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
The scene in the chapel of We Were Soldiers made me chuckle a bit. Chris Klein talking about how holy he was and how his dream was to go to Africa to feed orphans and build churches and wash their feet and make dollhouses out of recycled paper and build a bird sanctuary in china and protect an endangered species of trout in Canada and rebuild the Great Wall and buy a house in Christiansville, Kansas and build a chapel on the back and have seven kids and have the local priest over for dinner every saturday night.


Other than that, I liked the movie.

Last edited by RyoHazuki; 02-06-04 at 07:38 AM.
Old 02-05-04, 11:13 PM
  #3  
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
 
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 4,551
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
The Patriot. Didn't buy that movie one bit, and was actually glad when they burned all those people in that church. God they were obnoxious! Terrible movie.
Old 02-05-04, 11:36 PM
  #4  
DVD Talk Special Edition
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Chicago
Posts: 1,899
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
In The Bedroom. Totally didn't buy the end twist.
Old 02-06-04, 12:13 AM
  #5  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 761
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Moonlight Mile
Old 02-06-04, 12:23 AM
  #6  
DVD Talk Hero
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Madison, WI ("77 square miles surrounded by reality")
Posts: 30,012
Received 3 Likes on 2 Posts
The Chris Cooper character in American Beauty.

Every character in Requiem for a Dream, Ellen Burstyn particularly. No one with a cerebral cortex is that stupid.

Last edited by movielib; 02-06-04 at 12:26 AM.
Old 02-06-04, 01:20 AM
  #7  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: The middle
Posts: 291
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Originally posted by movielib
[BEvery character in Requiem for a Dream, Ellen Burstyn particularly. No one with a cerebral cortex is that stupid. [/B]
Yeah, believe it or not, there are a LOT of people that stupid. Or naive. Or both. Sad, but true...

And I'd like to add a second to whomever said The Patriot. Miserably bad, IMO.
Old 02-06-04, 01:38 AM
  #8  
DVD Talk Special Edition
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 1,923
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Rules of Attraction-the drug dealer. I did not buy it one bit and I have known a few of these fine fellows. I did not care for the movie, but I thought that character was just ridiculous.
Old 02-06-04, 01:45 AM
  #9  
DVD Talk Godfather
 
Giantrobo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Gateway Cities/Harbor Region
Posts: 63,126
Received 1,748 Likes on 1,093 Posts
Originally posted by jaeufraser
The Patriot. Didn't buy that movie one bit, and was actually glad when they burned all those people in that church. God they were obnoxious! Terrible movie.
Old 02-06-04, 01:48 AM
  #10  
DVD Talk Godfather
 
Giantrobo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Gateway Cities/Harbor Region
Posts: 63,126
Received 1,748 Likes on 1,093 Posts
i didn't buy:

Keanu Reeves in love with Diane Keaton.
Old 02-06-04, 01:54 AM
  #11  
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
 
Crocker Jarmen's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 8,739
Received 462 Likes on 306 Posts
The beginning of The Pledge where Jack talks to the family of the dead little girl. The whole business of her making Jack pledge on the cross that he would find her killer was so silly and poorly dramatized. I knew it set up the movie so I had to force myself to pretend it worked so I could enjoy the rest of the movie.

I'm so easy with my suspension of disbelief, but The Human Stain asked far too much of me. I'm sure Coleman's secret works fine it the book, but in the movie I wasn't buying it.
Old 02-06-04, 02:48 AM
  #12  
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
 
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 4,551
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally posted by Giantrobo
I didn't go into detail...in that section Heath Ledger's girl and her family are herded into a church and burned alive. The movie was just so poor IMO, and so lacking in the dramatic punch the film thought it had (god it wanted to be Braveheart SOOOO badly) that I was happy to see these ridiculous one dimensional, goofy and melodramatic characters die. Such an act in a film like this should be quite disturbing and emotional. The fact I was just happy to see these people die and get off the damn screen just points to my dislike of this poor movie.
Old 02-06-04, 06:49 AM
  #13  
DVD Talk Legend
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Posts: 19,679
Received 646 Likes on 446 Posts
Titanic, unless you were supposed to cheer for Billy Zane's character.
Old 02-06-04, 09:41 AM
  #14  
DVD Talk Special Edition
 
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 1,471
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Most recently, I felt that way about most of 21 Grams, but especially during the climactic hotel room scene. I didn'y buy that for one second, given everything we had learned about those characters up to that point. It rang hollow and manipulative.
Old 02-06-04, 09:49 AM
  #15  
Moderator
 
Groucho's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Posts: 71,383
Received 122 Likes on 84 Posts
Laura Linney's speech at the end of Mystic River. Came out of nowhere.
Old 02-06-04, 10:01 AM
  #16  
DVD Talk Hero
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Madison, WI ("77 square miles surrounded by reality")
Posts: 30,012
Received 3 Likes on 2 Posts
Originally posted by TREX1993
Yeah, believe it or not, there are a LOT of people that stupid. Or naive. Or both. Sad, but true...
...
Even if it's true (which I don't concede, at the very least insofar as the Ellen Burstyn character), it's a monumentally weak premise to hang the movie on. If that is the only way you can get your movie to even remotely "work" you should try another tack. IMO.

Last edited by movielib; 02-06-04 at 10:06 AM.
Old 02-06-04, 10:05 AM
  #17  
Moderator
 
Groucho's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Posts: 71,383
Received 122 Likes on 84 Posts
A lot of movies hinge on the stupidity of the main characters. Aka "Idiot Plot Syndrome." It's a staple of the horror genre.

I also hate it when films hinge on coincidence.

Oddly enough, Mystic River (which I mentioned above), hinges on both. I still liked it, but there were a lot of flaws.
Old 02-06-04, 10:18 AM
  #18  
DVD Talk Special Edition
 
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 1,471
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally posted by Groucho
Laura Linney's speech at the end of Mystic River. Came out of nowhere.
I actually posted about this in another thread, but this was definitely a flaw of the adaptation. The book goes far more into her background, which completely justifies that speech. I saw the film before I read the book and was completely flabbergasted by how out-of-place and unearned that speech was, but the book makes far more sense in that regard. Without the backstory, the speech (which is almost word-for-word from the book) makes no sense.
Old 02-06-04, 10:20 AM
  #19  
DVD Talk Hero
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Madison, WI ("77 square miles surrounded by reality")
Posts: 30,012
Received 3 Likes on 2 Posts
Originally posted by Groucho
A lot of movies hinge on the stupidity of the main characters. Aka "Idiot Plot Syndrome." It's a staple of the horror genre.

Oddly enough, Mystic River (which I mentioned above), hinges on both. I still liked it, but there were a lot of flaws.
I don't disagree and I think you are absolutely right about Mystic River, a film I also liked despite its flaws. But in that movie, all the major characters are not idiots all the time.

Now a movie can work with the major characters being idiots pretty much all the time such as the Bill and Ted movies. But that's because (a) they are comedies and (b) the movie is so smart in the ways in which it is stupid.
I also hate it when films hinge on coincidence.
Unless that is the entire premise of the film and it's pulled off consistently, brilliantly and exquisitely, like in Magnolia.

All this my opinions of course.
Old 02-06-04, 10:25 AM
  #20  
Moderator
 
Groucho's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Posts: 71,383
Received 122 Likes on 84 Posts
Magnolia tells us it's going to be about remarkable coincidence, but suddenly abandons that premise as soon as the marvelous introduction ends.
Old 02-06-04, 10:31 AM
  #21  
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
 
Join Date: Dec 2000
Posts: 3,227
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Originally posted by Groucho
Magnolia tells us it's going to be about remarkable coincidence, but suddenly abandons that premise as soon as the marvelous introduction ends.
Magnolia also purports to be about different people. But everyone was entrenched in UTTER DESPAIR AND LOATHING. Yawn. Variation on a theme helps. Really, it does.
Old 02-06-04, 10:35 AM
  #22  
Moderator
 
Groucho's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Posts: 71,383
Received 122 Likes on 84 Posts
Originally posted by sundog
Magnolia also purports to be about different people. But everyone was entrenched in UTTER DESPAIR AND LOATHING. Yawn. Variation on a theme helps. Really, it does.
No kidding. I can just see P.T. Anderson writing the script: "I love the whole idea of an estranged father dying of cancer that I'll use it not in just one storyline, but TWO!"
Old 02-06-04, 10:39 AM
  #23  
Moderator
 
Giles's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: Washington DC
Posts: 33,630
Received 16 Likes on 12 Posts
Originally posted by sundog
Magnolia also purports to be about different people. But everyone was entrenched in UTTER DESPAIR AND LOATHING. Yawn. Variation on a theme helps. Really, it does.
and the same thing could said about Neil La Bute's "Your Friends and Neighbors" where not one single character comes across as sympathic or redeamable. The film wallows in gutter speak, self indulgent narcacistic revelatoins that the whole tone of the film becomes a farce and ultimately trivial.
Old 02-06-04, 11:19 AM
  #24  
DVD Talk Hero
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Madison, WI ("77 square miles surrounded by reality")
Posts: 30,012
Received 3 Likes on 2 Posts
Originally posted by Groucho
Magnolia tells us it's going to be about remarkable coincidence, but suddenly abandons that premise as soon as the marvelous introduction ends.
I suppose in a way you're right. Perhaps most of the film uses happenstance more than coincidence. Whatever, I think it is a magnificent movie.

To those who say it's about nothing but depressed, self-loathing people, it's also about redemption for at least some of those people.

Well, I should have known I'd take it on the chin for criticizing Requiem for a Dream and praising Magnolia.

Last edited by movielib; 02-07-04 at 09:10 AM.
Old 02-06-04, 11:31 AM
  #25  
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
 
Join Date: Dec 2000
Posts: 3,227
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Originally posted by movielib
Well, I should have known I'd take it on the chin for criticizing Requiem for a Dream and praising Magnolia.
Well, the last thing I want is to be considered a fan of Requiem for a Dream. I loathe the characters in that movie, but not as much as the director does. Really, I know of few instances where the filmmaker held his creations in such contempt, and then expect to make some grandiose statement about their predictable downfall. That and I hate Jared Leto (mostly for this movie). I'm glad that most movies I see him in his character suffers in one way or another.

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.